But sit down, breathe deep, and ask a woman. Any woman. They are there.
When twin sisters Layla and Tanya are found starving in their upmarket apartment, there is frenzy in the media. How often does one find two striking, twenty-something women, one half-dead, the other not speaking, living in a state of disrepair and chaos, for no apparent reason? Theories about them are rampant, but disillusioned journalist Raman is loath to follow the story. That is, until Tanya begins to talk to him, and the darker truth behind the sisters’ lives starts to unravel.
A richly atmospheric, deeply claustrophobic story with a stunning denouement, of two women confronting the everyday realities of their city and country, So all is Peace provides an unflinching insight into love, lust, fear, grief, and the decisions we make, through a cast of sharply drawn characters brought together by an unspoken wrong.
Catagory: Romance
The World Between Us
When Amal finds out that her disastrous Tinder match is now going to be her boss, she can’t be more annoyed. Qais Ahmed is everything she never wants to be: narcissistic, manipulative and arrogant.
However, despite her relentless efforts, she is unable to resist his charm and wit and is drawn to him once she gets to know the real him.
She soon discovers that he isn’t just a part of her professional life but has a deep connection to a past she is trying to forget.
Will this disturbing secret tear them apart or bind them together forever?
Pocketful O’ Stories 2
ITC Engage, one of India’s leading fragrance brands is back with its much-loved bestselling series Pocketful O’Stories 2.0 in collaboration with the bestselling romance novelist Durjoy Datta.
This year’s theme, @LOVEIMPROMTWO was inspired by the newly launched 2-in-1 Pocket Perfume which makes sure that you are always ready for romance. People were invited to submit microtales on the unexpected and impromptu moments of love. Almost 25,000 entries were received within a month, making the second edition bigger than the first. Here’s presenting a compilation of the best stories that also includes Durjoy’s own microtales on unexpected moments of romance.
Memory of Light
SHORTLISTED FOR THE TATA LITERATURE LIVE! AWARD FOR FICTION 2020
Preparations for King George the Third’s fiftieth birthday gala are in full swing in Lucknow. As poets and performers vie to be part of the show, Chapla Bai, a dazzling courtesan from Kashi, briefly enters this competitive world, and sweeps the poet Nafis Bai off her feet. An irresistible passion takes root, expanding and contracting like a wave of light. Over two summers, aided by Nafis’s friends, the poets Insha and Rangin, and Sharad, himself in love with a man, they exchange letters and verses, feeding each other the heady fruit of desire. When Chapla leaves for home, they part with the dream of building a life together. Can their relationship survive the distances?
Narrated in the voice of Nafis, Memory of Light weaves an exquisite web of conversations, songs, reminiscences around a life-changing love.
Lallan Sweets
Can food lead Tara Taneja to love?
Tara Taneja lives in the small town of Siyaka; she runs a Mathematics Tuition Centre and works at her grandfather’s sweets shop, Lallan Sweets.
Nikku Sabharwal, her long lost best friend and crush, returns to Siyaka after many years. Sparks fly between them, as an adventure awaits.
The laddoos at Lallan Sweets are made from a secret magic ingredient. Lalaji, Tara’s grandfather, retires and decides that Lallan Sweets will not be inherited, but must be earned. So he devises a quest for his three grandchildren, Tara, Rohit and Mohit to find the magic ingredient. Whoever discovers it first will run the shop.
Nikku joins Tara in her pursuit to outsmart her cousins. The quest takes them from Mathura to Ludhiana, and together they battle old Family secrets, family legacies and unexpected dangers. Will the journey bring them together or lead to a bittersweet end?
Lallan Sweets is a heartwarming tale about love, family, food and the little things that matter in life.
Only the Good Die Young
Sometimes when you’re desperate to leave the past behind, the past is eager to catch up!
Anuradha leaves Gurgaon when Dhruv chooses his family over her. She thinks that chapter of her life has ended, and starts afresh in Mumbai. But strangely, it seems her past is trying to catch up. Dhruv suddenly comes back into her life. Even as they try to figure out their relationship, horrible things start happening to people they know. Together, Anuradha and Dhruv need to find out who it is that cannot bear to see them together. Who is carrying out these shocking crimes? Are they really soulmates cursed to stay apart, or is there some karmic debt they have to repay? Taut and thrilling, Only the Good Die Young is unputdownable.
Forever Is a Lie
The best thing happened to her . . . but in the worst way possible . . .
Prisha Srivastav turned eighteen two months back. Hailing from Faridabad, she studies mass communication in Bengaluru. She meets a mysterious man, double her age, who goes by the name ‘the mean monster’ in the Bengaluru party circuit. Intrigued, she pursues him and falls for him. However, there’s a problem. Prisha doesn’t know he kills the one who loves him. Literally.
From the master of twists, Novoneel Chakraborty, comes another beguiling tale of dark romance and thrill that won’t let you put the book down till the last page.
Forever Is True
Six months have passed since Prisha was pushed to her death by the person she loved the most, Saveer. But she doesn’t believe that it was him until she stumbles upon the first clue to the mystery that Saveer is, which leads her to his twisted past: He is not who he says he is.
Forever Is True is a riveting thriller exposing the deadly limits that a person can go to because of a ruined childhood.
Cheaters
Cheaters tells nine short stories, each discussing a different shade of infidelity in today’s times, when societal norms are still the same-archaic. However, the urge to explore and experiment amongst the youth is at an all-time high. This friction, if not handled well, could lead to unexpected roads. Each story, though high on emotion, unfolds in a thrilling narrative.
Vanara
Baali and Sugreeva of the Vana Nara tribe were orphan brothers who were born in abject poverty and grew up as slaves like most of their fellow tribesmen. They were often mocked as the vanaras, the monkey men. Sandwiched between the never-ending war between the Deva tribes in the north and the Asura tribes in the south, the Vana Naras seemed to have lost all hope. But Baali was determined not to die a slave. Aided by his beloved brother, Sugreeva, Baali built a country for his people. The capital city, Kishkindha, became a beacon of hope for emancipated slaves from across the world. It was a city of the people, by the people, for the people, where there was no discrimination based on caste, creed, language or the colour of skin. For a brief period in history, it seemed as if mankind had found its ideal hero in Baali. But then fate intervened through the beautiful Tara, the daughter of a tribal physician. Loved by Baali and lusted after by Sugreeva, Tara became the cause of a fraternal war that would change history for ever.
The love triangle between Baali, Tara and Sugreeva is arguably the world’s first. Written by Anand Neelakantan who gave a voice to Ravana in Asura, Duryodhana in the Ajaya series and Sivagami in the Baahubali series, Vanara is a classic tale of love, lust and betrayal. Shakespearean in its tragic depth and epic in its sweep, Vanara gives voice to the greatest warrior in the Ramayana-Baali.